You can't throw your stick, for example. That's going to get you two minutes in the penalty box.

Unless the stick knocks the puck away from an opponent winding up for a wrist shot. Then that guy's lining up for a penalty shot.

Could cost your team the game.

Dumb move. But I was a kid. Give me a break.

This is what I remember about Broome Park. It was almost 20 years ago. The snow was falling on the exposed sheet of ice. A bunch of 10-year-olds bumping into each other and knocking helmets under the floodlights. Slapping away at a frozen rubber disc with our wooden sticks.

As far as childhood memories go, this is about as good as it can get.

There is no ice rink at Broome Park anymore. Talk to old-timers in the area and they'll tell you about all the places they used to skate in Flint. Broome Park, Memorial Park. But over the years, the facilities got too expensive to maintain.

Who knows, maybe skating for fun fell out of style. Maybe it's old-fashioned. Children have plenty to do indoors today when the weather slips below freezing. Maybe families have more appealing activities to do than slide around and fall down a slab of frozen water.

Outdoor public ice rinks, at least in towns like Flint, were a thing of the past, I'd figured. Oh well. Maybe I'll shovel off a water hazard on a golf course someday.

So it was particularly interesting when, this week, I saw that Kettering University is working on building a public rink at Flint's Atwood Stadium. For the first time in years, there will be free, public ice skating in the center of the city.

When downtown hosted the first ever Fire & Ice festival last year, I remember people of all ages strapping on skates to glide around on a small temporary rink. But that wasn't even real ice, it was a bunch of white polymer panels connected together. An abomination for anyone who's ever shoveled off a pond to get a few laps in. But still, people were having a blast.

And this rink will be in Atwood. What a perfect place for it. Here is where for decades people flocked to see presidents and prize fights. This is where homegrown Olympians and Heisman winners come to greet their fans.

There's something important about this. Public skating rinks bring people together in the most terrific way. We're all out there sliding around and bumping into each other. Maybe you clap for a little kid who does their first twirl. Maybe catch a stranger about to take a big spill.

Sound carries on a slab of ice. Everyone's kind of sharing the same conversation. And everyone's doing the same thing, skating around in a circle. Usually counterclockwise (don't ask me why). Just stay up and try to keep moving. That is, beautifully, all there is to it.

If you haven't had this kind of experience, please, try it for yourself. I hope you find you enjoy it. I hope you find it's a welcome distraction from a world we've introduced so much complexity into. There's not room for much texting here. Stare at your phone too long and you'll get a face full of ice.

It may be naive to put so much importance on something like an outdoor ice rink. Flint has a lot of work to do, a long ways to go. And a few weeks of frozen water might not make much of a difference. But at least it's something. A small thing.